February 16, 2009

Shedding light on Emily

Over the weekend, contractors hired by the College started removing the tall hemlock trees which line the north side of Main Street from Sweetser Park to the corner of Triangle Street. The trees, once a hedge which fronted both the Dickinson Homestead and the neighboring Evergreens, will be replaced by a more “historically accurate” evergreen hedge. Based on my run by this morning, only the row of trees around the edges of the property, which is owned by the College, is being cut; many older and thicker trees, presumably those which gave the Evergreens its name, remain standing inside the lots.

Local bloggers Larry Kelley and Mary Carey posted pictures of the Homestead in its newly sun-bathed southern exposure, but to my mind the most dramatic change is at the Evergreens. The overgrowth of the hedge had hidden that house as thoroughly as though it had drawn a curtain over itself, a landscaping parallel to the house’s long slip from the center of town society to near-dereliction. The Evergreens was added to the “Emily Dickinson Museum” in 2003, and now it’s a visible part of Main Street for the first time since I came to Amherst.

Parker Morse '96 | February 16, 2009 10:03 PM | Town

Jeff | February 17, 2009 04:06 PM:

Parker Morse '96 | February 17, 2009 04:15 PM:

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